Before wishing to create, was God in a state of deep sleep carrying the design of creation in His mind?

[An online spiritual discussion was conducted on April 03, 2021, in which several devotees participated. Some of the questions of devotees answered by Swāmi are given below.]

[Śrī Anil Antony asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swami! Can we say that even before the first thought arose in God to create something for the sake of entertainment, He was in a state of deep sleep, in which He had the design of the world in an unexpressed state?]

Swāmi replied: When the soul is in deep sleep, the design of some plan exists in his brain in the state of unexpressed phase. Similarly, the same concept can be applied to God. But, the soul gets deep sleep whereas God’s deep sleep is not the ignorant deep sleep of soul and hence, God’s deep sleep is called Yoganidrā but not the usual deep sleep or Suṣupti. Yoganidrā means that He is fully aware of Himself in that state because God never really gets self-ignorance. To assist the real entertainment of the unreal world, He may superimpose self-ignorance on Himself, which means that He is always aware of Himself. The soul gets real self-ignorance in deep sleep. In the case of human incarnation, the human being component enters deep sleep whereas the God component is in Yoganidrā. The deep sleep for the medium of God is essential because God does not interfere in the properties of His medium.

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